Sphagneticola trilobata (L.) Pruski

  • Authority

    Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.

  • Family

    Asteraceae

  • Scientific Name

    Sphagneticola trilobata (L.) Pruski

  • Description

    Species Description - Procumbent herb, 2 m or longer. Leaves sessile or subsessile, those of a node commonly inconspicuously basally connate; blades 3-10 x 2.5-6 cm, oblanceolate to rhombic, often 3-lobed, chartaceous to fleshy, pinnately 3-veined from above base, pubescent to puberulent, also glandular on lower surface, gradually tapering into a subpetiolar base, the margins subentire or toothed, each margin often with a prominent medial lobe; petioles 0-5 mm long. Heads solitary, bell-shaped, on peduncles 3.5-14 cm long; involucre obconic, ca. 10-14 mm tall and broad; involucral bracts 12-15, subequal, green, ca. 10-14 x 2.5-4.5 mm , oblanceolate to oblong, strigose and weakly glandular or inner ones merely puberulent; palea oblanceolate. Ray flowers 4-10; limbs to 15 mm long, shallowly 3-lobed at apex, the lower surface glandular, exserted from involucre. Disk flowers many; corollas 4.5-5.5 mm long, shortly 5-lobed, the lobes strongly pubescent-papillose within or marginally, occasionally glandular on outer surface. Achenes pyriform, ca. 3 mm long; the collar to ca. 1.1 mm long.

  • Discussion

    Common names: creeping ox eye, wild marigold, wedelia.

    Occasional in strand vegetation, roadsides, to dry evergreen hillsides, but more common in wet areas. Along road to Bordeaux Mountain (A2894), Hillside above Cinnamon Bay (M17091). Also on St. Croix, St. Thomas, and Tortola; throughout much of the West Indies, southeastern United States, Mexico, Central America, and South America' Widely cultivated, escaping and becoming naturalized throughout tropical regions of both Eastern and Western hemispheres (except Africa).

  • Distribution

    Occasional in strand vegetation, roadsides, to dry evergreen hillsides, but more common in wet areas. Along road to Bordeaux Mountain (A2894), Hillside above Cinnamon Bay (M17091). Also on St. Croix, St. Thomas, and Tortola; throughout much of the West Indies, southeastern United States, Mexico, Central America, and South America' Widely cultivated, escaping and becoming naturalized throughout tropical regions of both Eastern and Western hemispheres (except Africa).

    Central America| México Mexico North America| West Indies| United States of America North America|